Doug, I thought of you and Paul right off the bat when I heard the pacing of the 380. Sorry to give you the bad news, but you guys need to start saving your spare change for this one. I would say the difference easily surpasses the differences between Nick's pre/phono and the Aesthetix gear by an order of magnitude. Chris has a pot on the controller to vary the torque so we had to play with that. It was very easy to hear the effect that excess torque had on the leading edges. All of us agreed that he should have that adjustment on the finished controller, perhaps with a much smaller range of torque adjustment. The 380 was about the same size as a 320. I wish I had remembered to take a few pictures although it is probably better that I didn't because Chris is not happy with the look. But,hey, it's a prototype. I believe it weighs around 120#.
Andrew, SirSpeedy is correct in that we did compare the Triplanar with a DPS. This is just my opinion, but I would go with the Triplanar for no other reason than it is much easier to adjust. The Schroeder is very well thought out and elegant in it's simplicity. Thom was able to tweak the DPS with the Dynavector so that it was very close to the same sound as the Triplanar/Dynavector. It did seem that the Schroeder was not quite up to controlling the edge attacks with piano stikes, but Thom and I both think that it could be done with some diligence in tweaking. The Universe did seem to lack a little dynamically compared with the XV-1s on the same arm. But I heard a very different result latter on at CB's open house. Now, if someone wants to wait for a Schroeder just be aware that the lead time is much greater than it used to be.
Another observation concerning the ZYX Universe. I realize that the arm used has a great deal to do with the outcome, but any talk of the Universe being somewhat slow or rolled-off is not what I heard at all using CB's Reference. This combo was also mounted on the torque monster 380. I can't explain why the Universe I heard at Thom's seemed to lack some dynamics. It could be that it is a better match with the Ref or it could be that the increase in torque unlocks the transient response. The Dynavector gives the Zyx a good run and costs good deal less.
Andrew, SirSpeedy is correct in that we did compare the Triplanar with a DPS. This is just my opinion, but I would go with the Triplanar for no other reason than it is much easier to adjust. The Schroeder is very well thought out and elegant in it's simplicity. Thom was able to tweak the DPS with the Dynavector so that it was very close to the same sound as the Triplanar/Dynavector. It did seem that the Schroeder was not quite up to controlling the edge attacks with piano stikes, but Thom and I both think that it could be done with some diligence in tweaking. The Universe did seem to lack a little dynamically compared with the XV-1s on the same arm. But I heard a very different result latter on at CB's open house. Now, if someone wants to wait for a Schroeder just be aware that the lead time is much greater than it used to be.
Another observation concerning the ZYX Universe. I realize that the arm used has a great deal to do with the outcome, but any talk of the Universe being somewhat slow or rolled-off is not what I heard at all using CB's Reference. This combo was also mounted on the torque monster 380. I can't explain why the Universe I heard at Thom's seemed to lack some dynamics. It could be that it is a better match with the Ref or it could be that the increase in torque unlocks the transient response. The Dynavector gives the Zyx a good run and costs good deal less.